Notes / Commercial Description:
A magical, mystical Monkey whose golden sole glows with the wisdom of the ages. This radiant ale is rich in the spirited tradition of Belgian-inspired brewing. Our Golden Monkey is both playfully delightful and profoundly satisfying. Exotic spice from the East rounds out this global journey to joy. Get on board. This Monkey's bound for glory!

More User Reviews:

Smell  Big, serious yeast aromas immediately fill the nose. Theres some wonderful tropical fruit in there to include orange, peaches, melons, and even a dash of coconut juice.

Taste  This one delivers big time. The bready yeast is strong but balanced. The fruity flavors keep things even and the mild alcohol notes remind the drinker of the 9.5 ABV.

Mouthfeel  Lightly carbonated and medium to full in the body. This one is thick and chewy. Its dinner in a glass.

Drinkability  This was ideal. It went down like a true Abbey Tripel. It was exceptionally smooth, energetic, and right on style. Awesome!

Update  I revisited this in 2004 and was even more impressed with the way Victory put this one together. After attending the 2004 Belgian Beer Fest and sampling many American efforts at the style Ive come to reallly appreciate this offering from the V. I was particularly impressed with the Mouthfeel and am raising that score by 0.5.

I don't understand why the bros reviewed this so low. They need to have another.

If you pay really close attention to each sip, the qualities kind of disappear - you have to just drink it and not think too much. You'll realize how good it is. It's got such a nice light (golden?) taste and feel, but it's also rich and flavorful - some spice and floral - especially the afterglow. Sweet the main thing for me. Virtually no hop bitterness.

A - Gorgeous pour.

S - Not strong, but not distracting or bad. I give it a five not because it was a perfect smell, but because for me it's not part of the experience - it's mild/neutral and doesn't detract from the drinking of it.

T - See above.

M - I guess I do like a bit more carbonation, but that's not really the thing with this style right?

Poured a nice pale golden color with a decent white head, somewhat long lasting. Sloppy pour by me? See some sediment suspended in the otherwise clear beer. Thought they were carbonation bubbles, but they aren't moving.

A very soft aroma, a mix of candy sweetness and very subtle Belgiany spice notes. Might be serving slightly too cold.

Again, gentle flavors. Some sweetness and a slightly pepper spice/yeast note. Beer dries out as it goes on in the sip, and the carbonation and light body make it somewhat crisp in the finish.

MF - fairly light body and high carbonation - very in style. Alcohol well hidden but a hint of warming is evident. Beer is spot on here for me.

I like this beer quite a lot, and am surprised by its mediocre average scores.

The multiple taps of Golden Monkey Ive consumed over the past several weeks in an attempt to understand why so many people enjoy this beer were a complete waste of space in my belly where better beer could have been. Golden Monkey could be appropriately renamed Sugar Monkey. Its main aroma and flavor is sugar. The yeast works and so does the appearance but other wise I am done trying this beer. The syrupiness churns my stomach. Way, way too much sugar. Blech!

What to do with a gift certificate to a below-average beer distributer whose best-represented brewery is Victory? Buy Golden Monkey, of course! It's well-named, well, half well-named as it pours a gorgeous golden color. There's little to no head, which doesn't last long anyway and hardly any lace. You're just stuck with the bright gold color, not too shabby. The smell hinted to me of coriander, cloves and orange peel. It had a light, crisp taste but the alcohol soon swept in with a heaviness that weighed on the tounge. This beer cooked- if you're not prepared with water, just one will send you to Buzzville. Other 9+% beers I have had didn't hit me as hard. Usually I prefer beers room temperature, but this one I like cold; it preserves that crisp taste I mentioned earlier and I find that it's easier to distinguish the its earthy tones than when it's warmer. Warm, this beer is like watered-down scotch. The alcohol almost overpowers it.

P.S: I know a guy who can drink a case of this stuff in one sitting. During his lunch break. Proof that aliens do walk among us?

A - Poured a orange-tan with little to no head and only a slight film of lace on the top, no real carbonation.

S - Smell was somewhat sweet with alot of alcohol and a hint of sour grapes.

M & T - The taste was odd, hard to really pin down. Lots of subtle flavors, dark fruits, grains, and hints of hops with a very noticeable alcohol hint in the back. Smooth, somewhat slick, not enough carbonation for me on this. Would have liked it to have more body to it.

D - Overall this was not bad at all, not my favorite belgian style ale, nor my favorite from victory, put definatly not bad. Will have to give it a secind try, just seems a bit strong for my everyday tastes, definatly unique and one that you should definatly try.

... JEESSUUUSS!!! This beer is heinous. No, offense guys... I loved your IPA. I put your IPA right up against my other favs: Magic Hat, Bells 2 hearted, Sweetwater420... ahhhh, miller lite. But this brass monkey is GAWD AWEFUL!!! This beer fails a new un-official standard... The drunk and stoned with no other beer standard.. This shit went down the drain... couldn't do it, I've been drinking and watching world cup soccer all day. This was the beer that made me say: 'Alright, time to cut it off...' Thanks for killing my buzz ass monkey!!!! If I were in prison and it was this or the hooch out of my cellie's butt hole... I would blumpkin him for the hooch.

T-Follows the nose........good mix of the candied sugars and spices.......yeast is showing thru............sugary sweetness at first, followed by the spices then pepper and finishes with a slight alcohol burn

F-light to medium bodied, some warmth from the alcohol, typical tripel carbonation

Absolutely exceptional. To be fair I drink an ice cold one of these beers on a hot summer day, the girlfriend was on my back and everything. This made everything alright, because i got drunk enough to ignore her.

Pours a nicy deep yellow color with a nice medium rocky head,the aroma was pretty tart and spicey.The taste was pretty cloveywith a malty sweet background,dangerously drinkable,wow.A very good beer from Victory,impressive maltiness in the ending on this one,pretty complex.

A: Light golden with a excellent clarity. The long lasting off-white head of compact bubbles leaves a some lacing on the glass.

S: Moderate lighter fruit notes of pears and peaches dominate the aroma with a moderately-light pepper and spicey phenols. The hops and alcohol add a light floral element. There is a faint malt softness in background.

T: A harsh bitterness dominates the flavor followed by moderate spice flavors for the first several sips. Without enough malt support for balance the moderately-high bitterness is sort of pithy like a bitter orange rind. There is a faint malt softness and a light floral hop flavor but not much of either. The bitterness lingers long past the dry finish

M: A moderately-light body beer with a moderately-high level of carbonation. There is a bit of warmth from the alcohol, a faint astringency and no creaminess

O: The high level of bitterness from the hops and spices make this tough on every sip and I'm a fan of highly hoped, very bitter IPA. Too bitter is phrase I haven't used until I met the Golden Monkey thought my palate adjusted half way through the bottle.

S- Straight up Belgian yeast are upfront with light farmhouse scent appearent. Scents of alcohol are dominate with mild nose of floral hops.

T-M- Taste is heavy alcohol esters and fresh tangy hops in the front. Second is a more pronounced yeasty sweetness that is followed by a thin carbonated yeast mouthfeel. Smooth but bold with heavy alcohol presence and bite from hops. I like this one... but for the style a little off.

D- I'd buy again but with a knowing of the fact i'm buying the alcohol not the style beer.